Epilogue: Conquering the Mountain!

I’ve had such an awesome tour this year around Tasmania, but I have to admit to some small disappointments and setbacks as my rear wheel didn’t last the entire planned journey, and many legs of my tour were subsequently completed aboard a bus/shuttle. My physical fitness is also nowhere near where I’d hoped it would be at this point of the year, for a multitude of factors. So when I set out this morning at 05:45 to conquer kunanyi, the 1,270m high mountain overlooking Hobart, I was very dubious about my chances of making it successfully to the summit.

After a hearty muesli breakfast, I kissed Danielle goodbye at 05:45, unable to convince her to accompany me. Danielle’s parents live in Sandy Bay, up on the hill overlooking the Derwent, so the first order of business was to descend for about a kilometre, but that was to be almost the last descent until I reached the summit. It’s only 22 kilometres, but all of it is a continual gradient between 5% at its easiest slopes to 16-17% at the steepest sections, which come mostly at the approach to the park, rather than on the mountain road itself.

I had to hike-a-bike for about 50 metres at a steep bend in Ridgeway Road just past the Waterworks, but otherwise managed to pedal the entire way. My uneasiness about my physical fitness was warranted, however the natural beauty of the eucalypt forests each side of the road was a soothing balm as I just slipped Serena into her lowest gear and plodded upwards. Ever upwards.

The mountain itself was shrouded in cloud and when I first set out I couldn’t see it at all, but as I wove through the approaching hills out of Sandy Bay, gaps in the cloud appeared here and there and exposed little green sections of forest, so that it appeared that the heavens themselves were forested! Wallabies bounded out of the way as pied currawongs looked at me wondering whether I was the next morsel of roadkill on the menu today.

As I rode up from the Springs, and beyond the first real lookout, I saw a snake slithering up from the road as I passed. Thinking it a tiger snakeUpon looking it up at home it could’ve been a tiger, but was more likely a White-lipped Snake, Drysdalia coronoides. I didn’t stop to look, I just pedalled like crazy out of there!

The climb was relentless, as I said, but the view and beauty was relentless too, as I’ve also said. It bears repeating: this is one of the nicest rides I’ve been on in terms of scenery.

I finally reached the summit about 08:00 and the cloud had yet to clear. The clouds were swirling around the mountain, creating a silent and eerie world of its own as I felt like I was riding in the sky. I asked a bloke at the top to take some photos of me, and my original intent was to hold my bike above my head, but being a bit pooped from the ride, and the bloke having a little fella near the road to look out for, I opted for a quick lift instead at chest height. I like how it turned out though: taking my Serena on a trip I’d promised her all year, and showing her the view.

I read a beautiful poem at one of the lookouts, written (I believe) by a local indigenous poet. I don’t know the author, what tribal group they’re from, or even in fact what language this is written inIf anybody does know, I would love to be informed. The sign gave the names of three tribes of Aboriginal families: muwinina, mumirimina, and nununi., but I liked it a lot. Here are both the indigenous poem and the English translation:

milaythina nika milaythina-mana.
pakana laykara milaythina nika mulaka
pakana-mapali krakapaka milaythina nika.
tapilti larapuna, tapilti putalina
tapilti kunanyi, tapilti tayaritja
waranta takara milaythina nara takara.
nara taymi krakapaka waranta-tu waranta tunapri nara.
milaythina nika waranta pakana,
waranta palawa, milaythina nika

This land is our country
Aboriginal people ran over this land to hunt
and many died here.
From Eddystone Point, to Oyster Cove
From Mount Wellington, to the Bass Strait islands
We walk where they walked.
And they will never be dead for us as long
as we remember them.
This country is us — and we are this country.

I remarked to the kind photographer that I’d “forgotten what downhill is” when he asked how I felt in amazement that I’d ridden up there on my bicycle. I was soon to be reminded: the obvious flipside of a continual ascent is a continual descent once I turned around and went home. I rode my brakes hard enough, as I felt the road isn’t really good enough to safely exceed about 40-50kph, and I stopped at the Lost Freight Café at the Springs area, which served a very nice double espresso as I chatted to a West Australian fellow cyclist on his way up.

As I turned off from Pinnacle Road onto Huon Road, and came through Fern Tree, a flatbed truck with lots of bins on the back sat right on my arse as I descended the mountain at 50kph, but that obviously wasn’t enough for him. Wanker. Thankfully he continued down Huon Road as I turned off onto Chimney Pot Hill Road to go the way I’d come.

I met up with Danielle at MeMi Café near the University of Tasmania campus in Sandy Bay, where we’ve been having our regular coffee whilst here. The sense of pride and accomplishment I felt was palpable, and I was absolutely beaming when Danielle walked up to me sitting and gulping down coffee, water, bacon and egg slider and a muffin.

Wooo!